11th Sunday after Trinity 2023 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated the eleventh Sunday after Trinity accompanied by Hugh. We were a great gathering this morning in voice and numbers, it was lovely to be back.
Don’t forget the church walk next Saturday!
This Week
Tuesday – 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Saturday 26th August – Church walk – 2pm from St Andrew’s, we will do a Craigton circular walk with a stop off at Veronica’s for a cup of tea.
Saturday September 9th All Saints and St Andrews Cakewalk 2023 – Depart from St Andrews Church at about 11.30am and then head up the West Highland Way stopping for picnic enroute to Ardbeg at Easter Carbeth where we will have tea and the opportunity to visit Mairi’s beautiful garden chapel
A message from Harry, please do support if you can – The Monroe Family will be participating in our 9th Walk on 27th August 2023, and would welcome donations to JustGiving.com to the account of ‘Off the Beatson Track 2023’.
Harry has just emailed me this message “Thank you from us for the magnificent response this morning to the Beatson Hospital appeal. We will close our appeal now, and anyone who wishes to contribute directly can do so on the Just Giving page.
We wish Kath and Harry all the best for the walk next week.
Bricks without Straw – This is the title of a diocesan initiative to establish the position spiritually, missionally and financially of the charges throughout the diocese. The Bishop has asked us to consider each of these subjects in response to certain questions on three separate forms which I and the treasury team will deal with on St Andrew’s behalf. However, I would be most grateful for your input of any ideas, suggestions comments etc that you may have.
The Bishop would like an honest depiction of how we currently see ourselves now as a church.
The forms are on the notice board on the stairs for you to add your own comments on. You can also download the information and send me a form online with your thoughts or via email.
Please do participate if you can, even if its just a verbal contribution. Below is the link for the forms and more information.
Readings for next Sunday – 12th Sunday after Trinity – Isaiah 51:1-6 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20
Today’s readings – Isaiah 56:1,6-8, Romans 11:1-2,29-32, Matthew 15:21-28
“Yes, lord even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table “ Matthew 15:27
These words have always brought a smile to my face. In our household there is a firm rule that dogs should not be fed titbits from the table. However, as I am a fairly useless canine disciplinarian all my life I have lived with dogs who readily eat the crumbs that fall to the floor from the table.
So, for many years I have enjoyed this story from the gospel without necessarily appreciating what it’s all about.
It is actually quite a complicated bit of text. This story of a Canaanite women’s encounter with Jesus is not a comfortable one to listen to or an easy one to understand.
It seems out of character for Jesus to reject a distressed woman seeking healing for her child. It is unlike him to use such dismissive words to anyone, humiliating someone in the presence of others.
It might help us in our understanding of it to set this story in context and look at the events which led up to it.
At the beginning of chapter 15 Matthew tells us that the Pharisees and Scribes come from Jerusalem to question Jesus. We can be sure these questions are not asked with an aim to develop a new understanding and deepening of faith, they are challenges thrown at Jesus in order to discredit and condemn him.
They ask why Jesus’ disciples don’t follow the traditional Jewish rules of hand washing. Jesus answers them with a question of his own about the way they themselves use traditions to undermine the spirit of God’s law. He calls them hypocrites – people who give the appearance of worshipping and honouring God.
After this encounter with his critics Jesus talks to his followers about what makes someone clean or unclean. Jesus says that the food we eat is processed and passes out of the body. It’s a physical function which had no moral implications, however the way we speak and act does have moral implications affecting ourselves and other people.
It is after this teaching that Jesus goes to the district of Tyre and Sidon where the Canaanite women comes to him to beg him to heal her sick daughter. At first Jesus ignores her, perhaps he is struggling within himself about how to respond. His compassion and love for all suffering people would move him to respond with healing but he is also aware of his calling as God’s chosen one for God’s chosen people.
So, he hesitates.
“ I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel “ he says Matthew 15:24
But then the woman comes right up to him, kneels in front of him and again asks for his help. Jesus knows that his critics would reject this woman and would consider him unclean for having spoken to her. He voices their thoughts saying,
“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” Matthew 15:26
The dogs refer to the gentile world and Jesus himself is the children’s food, the crumbs. So, what he is saying is that Christ is only for the chosen people of Israel.
The woman’s quick reply that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table shows she understood the fact that Christ is for all people. As a result, Jesus, so impressed and delighted in finding such a faith and comprehension in an “outsider” when it had been seemingly missing among “the chosen people”, is then consumed with love and compassion for her, and heals her daughter.
Jesus demonstrates vividly that while he might be ritually unclean by speaking to a gentile woman his words and actions are loving and healing, reflecting God’s gracious acceptance of all people.
This whole chapter presents us with a challenge about how we live out our faith in our homes, congregations, communities and places of work. In it we are powerfully reminded that we can say and do all the right things but it’s what going on in our hearts that matter. And what is going on in our hearts will somehow be shown in our lives and relationships. We are reminded that God looks to the very centre of our being, but does so with love and compassion, always wanting to forgive and heal so that we can live lives free from guilt and able to love others and live whole lives.
Finally, we are reminded that we too are called to love beyond all boundaries because no one is ever outside the reach of God’s love.
Love which is for all people everywhere and always.