The PDF version of this service is available at https://tinyurl.com/WAH20200913
WORSHIP AT HOME – Sunday September 13th 2020
Note this service follows the
order that will be used at Trinity and Beeston on Sunday morning but with one or
two differences.
Introit –
I was glad - St. George's Chapel Choir, Windsor & Christopher Robinson https://youtu.be/EA6EMpfwCoI
In
chapel we will be using candles to remind the congregation that we offer our
worship alongside Christians throughout the world and especially with those of
our own congregations who are not able to be in chapel. You may wish to light a candle at home to
remind you that your worship joins with that of the whole Church.
Call
to Worship – Psalm 43.3
Send me your light and your
faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
Opening
Prayer
God of the whole universe,
heaven is your throne
the earth is your footstool
you are present in all of
Creation.
In many places and at different
times,
people have worshipped you
in word, song and deed,
draw close as we bring offer our
praise today.
May our worship be led by your
Spirit
as it is offered through your Son
our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen
Hymn – Praise
My Soul the King of Heaven – Sung by Treorchy Male Voice Choir - https://youtu.be/tWD6aLYEZlE
Reading
and Reflection – (Dalwyn)
Part 1: Matthew 18.21–27: The king
settles accounts and shows mercy.
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and
asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins
against me? Up to seven times?’
22 Jesus answered, ‘I tell you,
not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 ‘Therefore, the kingdom of heaven
is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the
settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to
him. 25 Since
he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his
children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 ‘At this the servant fell on his
knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back
everything.” 27 The
servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
How do we respond to the image of
God as a king (or master) who wishes to ‘settle accounts with his servants?’
(v23)
It seems that the kind of
accounting in view here is similar to the present–day requirement to submit a
self-assessment for income tax. There
are various approaches to this legal requirement. Some organise their finances in fine detail,
making sure that an appropriate amount is set aside so that they can submit
their return as soon as possible and pay their debt promptly. Others, whilst they are fairly well
organised, leave their submission as late as possible, even finding themselves having
to rush to get it in at the last minute.
Just occasionally we hear stories of people who have spent their income
as it arrived forgetting that they needed to make provision for the tax bill
that would inevitably come – and often these examples end up in court-cases, possible
bankruptcy or even imprisonment. In our
country, the government, on behalf of the monarch, requires us to settle our
accounts annually and to pay what is owed promptly!
The situation described in Jesus’
parable would certainly grab the headlines!
The sheer size of the debt owed would give the servant overnight infamy! One commentary suggests that his debt amounts
to “more than the amount of money in circulation in any petty kingdom in Jesus’
day.” It is estimated that the entire
tax revenue in Israel in Jesus’ time was about 800 talents – the debt owed here
by an individual is well over ten
times this amount and is the equivalent of 20 years of wages for someone
earning the average daily wage.
We might imagine the newspapers’ speculation on how he has managed to rack up
such an amount!
Has his debt accrued because he
has absented himself from previous reckonings?
Does he owe this amount because
he over-estimated his abilities and promised his master too much – and now
cannot pay?
Or has he been helping himself to
his master’s belongings?
There are probably many more guesses
we could make, which just remind us of how many different ways we can end up being
in debt to God
The exaggerated debt is in
keeping with Jesus’ answer to Peter’s initial enquiry. Peter is looking for an excuse to place
limits on forgiveness by appearing to offer a generous seven opportunities for
the ‘brother or sister’ to mend their ways.
“Surely,” Peter seems to be
suggesting, “there comes a point when enough is enough!”
Jesus gently mocks him by upping
the ante – ‘not seven times but seventy–seven!’
(The footnote in the NIV magnifies it even further suggesting it could
be ‘seventy times seven.’) The point he goes on to make is that no matter
how big the offence or how often it is repeated forgiveness should be
inexhaustible.
It is just possible that the king
knew exactly what kind of mess his servant was in and knew that there was no
way either of them could sort it unless it was exposed. We may recoil from the initial response of
ordering that the debtor’s whole family be sold into slavery, but what if this
is just the master’s way of highlighting the depth of the problem?
The servant’s response seems to
be to continue his self-deception that allowed him to become so indebted. He begs
for patience offering the impossible promise, ‘I will pay it back.’ Everyone hearing the story knows that the
servant has no chance of repaying the amount he owes. Yet as unrealistic as this might be, he seems
to have grasped the depth of his problem.
The beginning of this realisation
offers his master the opportunity to give him something far more valuable: compassion. Our translation tells us that he ‘took pity
on him.’ The word for pity indicates
that the master acted out of a deep-seated sense of compassion for his servant’s
plight. His response goes further than
just recovering his lost assets, he is moved by deep concern for his servant’s
future. The welfare of his servant
overshadows his desire to recover his losses and only forgiveness can give this
foolish servant any sense that the burden has been lifted and that he can
rebuild his life.
So how do we respond to the idea
that God might be like a king who knows that we need help to deal with the
things that have gone wrong in our lives and our relationships with both God
and with our neighbour?
How do we react to the idea that
it might be impossible for us to repay what we owe from our own resources?
How do we feel that the One to
whom we owe so much has reached out to us both to help us come to terms with
the fact that sometimes we get it horribly wrong and to offer us the
forgiveness we need so that our account can be cleared and we can start again
with a fresh slate?
Watch the
song – Have Mercy on Me, O God – Graham Kendrick – here https://youtu.be/1IRQTaSo9Nc
Prayer of Confession
Loving and forgiving God,
when my words and deeds have
brought harm to my neighbour
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy
when I have remained silent whilst others cause injury
Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy
when I have turned my back on another’s need
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
all my inmost being, praise his
holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not his benefits
he has forgiven my sins and
healed my brokenness,
he has redeemed my life from the
pit
and given be the crown of love
and compassion to wear.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
(based on Psalm 103.1-4) Amen
Reading
and Reflection – (Dalwyn)
Part 2: Matthew 18:28–35: Forgiven
that we might forgive
28 ‘But when that servant went out,
he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver
coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. “Pay back what you owe me!”
he demanded.
29 ‘His fellow servant fell to his
knees and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”
30 ‘But he refused. Instead, he went
off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other
servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their
master everything that had happened.
32 ‘Then the master called the
servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours
because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t
you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” 34 In anger his master
handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he
owed.
35 ‘This is how my heavenly Father
will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your
heart.’
Having been invited by God to receive God’s forgiveness, we are challenged to be a people who forgive!
The king who knew the depth of
his servant’s debt and offered him compassion and forgiveness is demonstrating the
way he desires his household to work.
Once the king shows a willingness to cancel the servant’s debt and give
him the chance to build his life anew free from its burden, he expects that to
be the model for all interactions.
But where do we start? Especially how do we begin if we feel that the
hurts inflicted upon us are as big as the debt owed by the servant in the first
half of the story?
As Christians there is only one place we can start: at the foot of the cross of Jesus where we find God’s forgiveness being offered in the face of enormous human cruelty and violence. Yet offering this as as a starting place is not as simple as it might seem, not least, because each of the Gospel writers gives us a different insight to what happened for Jesus as he was crucified.
The Cross, as a starting place gives us one clear message: forgiveness can be
very, very costly and as equally as messy.
It can involve pain, hurt, wounds and ultimately it may require a
willingness to die (literally or metaphorically) in order to be able to offer another
the gift of forgiveness. What’s more the
Cross reminds us that even if we are willing to undergo the agony required to
forgive, the other person may reject the forgiveness we offer.
Yet despite all of the
difficulty, forgiveness is not optional for Christians.
We cannot deny or ignore the depth
of cruelty that humans can inflict upon each other and some of us may have
endured such wickedness towards us that indeed the debt feels as large as that
owed by the servant to his master. Even
so, Jesus seems to be saying, God offers us forgiveness and promises to give us
the resources we need to forgive others.
Perhaps the clue is hidden in the
suggestion that forgiveness springs from our attitude to the debts that are
owed to us. It seems that it isn’t about
whether the other person wants to pay, is able to pay or makes any attempt to pay. It is about whether we would be willing to
see the debt cancelled and to live from that moment on as if it were never
owed. That doesn’t mean that we have to
tolerate behaviour that adds to the wounds or the injuries. No, it is right for us to do everything in
our power to stop others from harming us or behaving wrongly towards us. But what forgiveness does mean is that we become
willing to live with the possibility that past debts may never be repaid.
Jesus didn’t die on the Cross
because humans knew the extent of their sin; he didn’t die because humans
wanted to get right with God but found it impossible. The Bible tells us that Jesus died on the
Cross first and foremost to demonstrate that no depth of human wrongdoing could
extinguish God’s love for humanity. Yet
Jesus’ death also issues a call to live differently. We are not only offered forgiveness, but we
are challenged to live as those who have been forgiven and who forgive. Christians are called to be those who make
the conscious effort to avoid harming others and to be those who are willing to
forgive those who trespass against us. And we are called to do this not just seven
times but seventy-seven times.
Prayers of Intercession
Hear us O God as we pray for the
church, the world and for ourselves:
We pray for the church to which
we belong
that your love and compassion
would shape our common life together.
Lord of compassion, fill us with your love.
We pray for the world in which we
live
that divisions and conflict might
be ended by peace and forgiveness.
Lord of compassion, fill us with your love.
We pray for ourselves,
that we might keep our short our
accounts with you and with each other.
Lord of compassion, fill us with your love.
In union with sisters and brothers
across the world,
we pray the prayer our Saviour
taught us
Our Father …
Hymn –
Great is Thy Faithfulness – https://youtu.be/ErwiBz1QA4o
Music as
Congregation exit – Send me out from here – John Pantry - https://youtu.be/Zd1BattWF9Y
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