19th July 2020 All Saints Church, Childwall
Read: Matthew 13: 24 -30 & 36 – 43 – The Parable of the Weeds 24 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”….. “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Reflect: Bishop Paul in his Diocesan sermon this week said: A few weeks ago I broke a tooth. It was a big molar that had done great work for me for well over fifty years, and I broke it by biting a potato crisp. I didn’t bite hard, and there wasn’t a stone in the crisp. According to the dentist, the edge of the crisp had simply impacted on a thin crack, a fault-line in the tooth, as any crisp could have done for decades. All the fault-line needed was a piece of food in the wrong place at the wrong time – and I now have a broken tooth, and of course no immediate prospect of a filling.
The Coronavirus has more in common with a mouthful of broken glass than with a Salt and Vinegar crinkle-cut. And it is impacting on all our personal and institutional lives at once. But the principle is the same; ways of being and living that have done us well for decades and centuries are suddenly under impact, and if there are fault-lines some of them will break, with no immediate prospect of a filling. We are being stress-tested as individuals and as a society. How should we live in such a time?
The great physicist Albert Einstein once said, “You should try to make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”. This is a good rule for Christians who are immersed in the world that God made and that God loves. Here and there you see examples of Christians who try to make the world simpler than God has made it – for example by turning their backs on the world and establishing a parallel culture of pure people who have nothing to do with what they see as the impure world.
This seems to me to fall into the trap described by Jesus when he has the servants in the parable say “Let’s uproot the weeds now, and have a pure field”. No, says the master, that would not work, and you’d damage the good fruit too. There are plenty of examples of self-styled pure communities which go badly wrong and become oppressive, hurtful, and in the most extreme cases deadly.
The world is complicated. Good and evil live side by side. It is always like that. But in a world crisis, such as the pandemic we’re living through at the moment, the stress-test is acute. Jesus’ story of the field states the situation clearly; in the field of the world good and evil grow side by side, and seeking to uproot the evil and to establish a pure world will do more harm than good.
Respond: We are called to seek and to pursue holiness, even as we are called to be immersed in the world God loves. Our calling is not to escape into another field, but to bear with the field we’re in; the world God loves; and to serve it.
Pray: My prayer for the Diocese in these days of Coronavirus is for clear-sightedness and light-heartedness in each and all our disciples. May God in Christ give these gifts to you, personally, and to your community, and to all the 60,000 or so people who comprise the Diocesan family. And may God in Christ be close to you in your praying, and your serving, and your living, this week and into God’s future. Amen
Rt.Rev.Paul Bayes (Bishop of Liverpool)
Dear Friends,
Youth & Children’s Worker – You will know from my midweek video message last Wednesday that we have the opportunity to welcome Gypsey-Leigh Tait who is 25 years old, as our Youth & Children’s worker starting on September 1st. Please watch my midweek video message from last week which gives you the complete story if you haven’t been able to yet. The link is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iZ1FW2Bg8fMNAKz0L5luQkAquctVPLaR/view?usp=sharing
In my message I shared how to make this possible if this was right before God. We as a church family would need to provide accommodation and finance to support her for the year.
It has been so encouraging to be on the receiving end of so many positive and generous messages. My phone started to ‘ping’ with responses within minutes of my message going out. The financial, practical and prayer support that has been offered is both humbling and affirming that God has a plan for Gypsey with us. If you have not watched the video yet or are still praying through your response it is not too late to join with us on this new venture.
For those that have responded practically and financially so far – Thank You! You will shortly be receiving a letter with full details of how your financial response can be set up.
At a time of cutbacks and questions nationally I am in awe of how God is providing for us in this new and exciting way. I have spoken to Gypsey this morning and shared with her how people have responded. I have invited her up to Liverpool to discern with us the next steps.
Services in Church – As you all know from last week’s sheet we made the decision to hold only wedding, funeral and baptism services initially. I will therefore be baptising a number of children whose baptisms have been delayed for over 3 months. This is an important part of us serving our parish and I am pleased that we are going ahead with them. Families have booked in advance with me the number of guests they are bringing and so our numbers at these services will be low. This will mean that we can see how our new procedures work in practice with lower numbers confined to either side of the main aisle in alternate pews. I will be wearing a clear visor when I am baptising the children and they will be held by one of their parents.
Our online service available every week on our website will still continue as will our Zoom Coffee every Sunday at 10.15am. On Monday 27th July at 8pm we have another joint Staff, PCC and Readers meeting to review our previous decision and to discuss the reopening of the church building further. Please pray for wisdom as we consider all the facts and make further decisions.
Weekly Prayer requests – If you would like other members of our church family to be able to pray for you or for another member of your family, please let me know and I will put names on this sheet each week. Please ask permission from the person whose name will appear.
Please pray this week for those that are unwell: We pray particularly for Marie Owens at this time.
Please pray for the bereaved family and friends of Elizabeth Reay.
If you change your address or your tax status and you regularly give financially to All Saints Church please will you let Diane Deacon know who is our Gift Aid Secretary, thank you. deekschildwall@gmail.com
WEEKLY PRAYER MEETING – Weekly prayer meeting Thursday 6.30pm on Zoom. Why not join a group of us at All Saints that pray regularly. It lasts 40 minutes, you can pray, sit and listen or just contemplate.
Click on the below link and take 40 minutes out of your busy schedule.
Zoom Meeting: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79853782379?pwd=NEloclhRVEJST3RFeUdUVEowSWJRUT09
Meeting ID: 798 5378 2379 Password: 7VUQh6 Aidan Holmes
Zoom coffee – After our Online Service each Sunday please join us for Zoom coffee at 10.15am for 40 mins – remember to bring your own coffee! Details for Zoom coffee are as follows:
Zoom Coffee – every Sunday at 10.15am Meeting ID: 842 767 1496 Password: 4allsaints
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8427671496?pwd=K2dMMnlvTHpwTkxDNEV6bDYwQXBDQT09
With our prayers for you all at this time – Andrew Colmer – Vicar – Tel: 07305 842257
Helen Deegan – Curate – curate.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
