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with best wishes
Anne Le Bas
Online
Worship podcast Order of service
You can also access this podcast by phoning 01732 928061 |
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In the church building today
10 am Holy Communion
6.30pm Evensong
Next Sunday
10 am Holy Communion
6.30pm Evensong
This week:
Wed 10am Zoom Church - email to be added to the list
Fri 10.30 - 12.30 Friday Group in the church hall
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Trinity 11
Isaiah 56.1, 6-8, Matthew 15, 21-28
Today's Gospel story is an odd and awkward one, not only for the people in it, but for everyone trying to make sense of it later. Jesus seems to react harshly at first to the Canaanite woman who pleads with him to heal her daughter. She won't give up, though, and he commends her faith and persistence as he does what she asks.
It's a challenging story to interpret. Commentators fall into three broad camps
1. Jesus is testing her faith by refusing to heal her daughter, perhaps as a demonstration to his disciples that here is someone - an outsider - who has more faith than many Israelites. In this explanation, Jesus knows all along that he will heal her daughter. This seems cruel, however. Any parent who has had a seriously ill child will know how desperate you feel; it's not the time to put people through unreasonable tests.
2. Jesus' words are somehow not as harsh as the translations make them sound - maybe Jesus is quite fond of dogs really... As well as having no basis in fact - dogs were considered unclean by Jewish people, not the cute pets that people have today - it still leaves Jesus playing word games with a desperate woman at her moment of greatest need, which is unlike him.
3. We are being shown Jesus genuinely learning and growing at this point, discovering through experience the discomfort we can all feel around those who are different from us. Many find this challenging, because they assume that Jesus' sinlessness means that he shouldn't have to learn and grow.
I tend towards the third explanation, as the sermon will make clear. If Jesus is truly human then he must have learned all sorts of things as he grew up. He wasn't born able to speak, walk, or do algebra, after all, and emotional learning is just as natural a process as intellectual learning. The fact that this story is included at all in the Gospels seems to indicate that the Gospel writers didn't see any problem with portraying Jesus as someone who grows and develops, learning from the Canaanite woman what a truly inclusive ministry really looks - and feels - like. Your interpretation may be different, though! - What do you feel about this story? Does it make you feel uncomfortable? Do you see Jesus as someone who needed to learn and grow?
- Have you ever had to overcome feelings of strangeness, in a setting where you are outside your comfort zone? What did it feel like, and how did you deal with it?
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All Age Ideas
In today's Gospel story, Jesus goes to a foreign country to him, the land of Tyre and Sidon. There he meets a local woman who wants him to heal her daughter who is ill. He doesn't seem to want to at first - perhaps she feels too different and strange to him - but she tells him that she knows God loves her just as much as anyone, and Jesus agrees, praising her faith. Some people find it odd to think that Jesus needed to learn, but everyone learns - it's part of being human. - and Matthew, who wrote this story, doesn't seem to think it's strange that Jesus learns from this woman. - Have you ever been somewhere very different - perhaps to a different country, or to visit people who were very different from you? What did it feel like? What helped you to feel at ease?
- If you are about to go back to school, into a different class, or to a different school completely, how do you feel about that? What worries you? Talk to the people you live with about it.
- I begin my talk in the podcast today with an extract from the poem "The Jumblies" by Edward Lear. It's the story of some people, the Jumblies, who seem very strange - their heads are green and their hands are blue. In the story, they decide to go to sea in a sieve. A sieve is something you might use in the kitchen or garden to strain or sift things. It's full of holes - not a very sensible sort of boat! You might expect that they would sink, but, according to the poem they don't! Instead they have a wonderfully exciting trip.
Michael Rosen reads the whole poem in the video below, or you can read it for yourself here! |
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CHURCH AND COMMUNITY NEWS
RECEIVING COMMUNION AT SEAL CHURCH
The Communion Rail
We are going to be resuming the practice of kneeling or standing at the altar rail to receive communion in church today. I will always be willing to bring communion to those who can't manage the stairs, however. This will be our normal practice on the 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays from now on. On the 1st Sunday of the month I will celebrate communion using the portable altar in the nave, and will distribute communion at the chancel steps, as we have been doing for the last couple of years.
The Shared Chalice
Very few people indicated in the recent survey I put out that they wanted to drink wine from a shared chalice, but there were a few who did. I will, therefore, continue to dip the wafer in the wine as standard, but there will be a chalice available for those who would like to drink from it. If you would like this, please remain at the communion rail after you have received the wafer, and I will give you the cup.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY FOR SEPTEMBER
Sun Sept 10 -ANIMAL BLESSING SERVICE at 3pm. Bring along your pets, in suitable containers, if they are happy to be out and about with others!, or a photo of your pet if that is easier, and join us for a simple service of blessing for them and all the creatures we share the world with. We are planning to have a cake and gift sale after the service, and possibly some Eco Church activities.
Sat Sept 16 - FREE GUIDED TOUR OF SEAL'S STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. Learn about Seal Church's fine Victorian stained glass, the stories it tells, the people who made it, donated it and are memorialized in it. This is an event which is part of the "Heritage Open Days" scheme. Tours at 11 am and 4pm, lasting about an hour. Numbers are limited, and slots are running low for the 11 am tour, so please email sealpandp@gmail.com as soon as possible to book your place, or sign the list at the back of church. |
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