17th after Trinity St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated the 17th Sunday after Trinity. We warmly welcomed John to play for us.
On Saturday we are undertaking a church cleaning session, everyone invited. We will also be decorating the church for Harvest Festival so if you have anything suitable from your garden do bring it along to add to the decorations.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Saturday 11-1pm Church cleaning plus decorating for Harvest Festival
Sunday October 8th 10am Sung Eucharist for Harvest festival followed by coffee, cakes and sale of produce etc plus please bring any item for the alter offering and any produce or suitable item for coffee and treats afterwards.
Coming up
Wednesday 11th October 10.30 am Funeral Mary Finlayson Cairns Church
Sunday October 22nd AGM in church following Sung Eucharist and coffee.
Readings for next Sunday – 18th Sunday after Trinity – Isaiah 5:1-7 Philippians 3:4-14 Matthew 21:33-46
Today’s readings – Matthew 21:23-32 Ezekiel 18:1-4 Philippians 2:1-13
I expect we can all think of times when we have quite cheerfully agreed to do something and then failed to do it! On the other hand, there are also times when the opposite can happen, we can shy away from doing a task or an idea, not keen at all to embrace a new plan, but over a period of time when we have had a chance to think, we change our minds and the next thing we know we are in full agreement with whatever it was.
Our rather challenging and difficult gospel reading this morning has this concept of response and how we respond to others as its theme. It’s illustrated in the parable of the two sons.
The passage starts with an exchange between Jesus, the chief priests and the elders about by whose authority Jesus preaches. When we think of the extraordinary things Jesus had been doing, we cannot be surprised that the Jewish authorities asked him what right he had to do them. Now Jesus was not prepared to give them the direct answer that his authority came from the fact that he was the Son of God. To do so would have been to precipitate his end and there was work still to be done and teaching still to be given.
Here Jesus was showing that it sometimes takes more courage to bide one’s time and to await the right moment rather than be hasty and face disaster. For Jesus everything had to be done in God’s time and the time for the final show down had not yet come.
Jesus’ parable of the two sons asks us how we will respond to the Gospel. Will we change our minds and believe, or not? Will we be the son who says he will obey and does not, or will we be the son who turns around and changes his mind? Will we be judged not by what we say, but by what we do?
In this parable the Jewish leaders are the people who say they would obey God and then did not. The tax collectors and prostitutes are those who said that they would go their own way and then took God’s way.
The thing is this parable is not really praising anyone. It sets before us a picture of two sets of people of whom one set was none the less better than the other. Both in their way were unsatisfactory but the one who in the end obeyed was definitely better than the other. The son who said he would go and did not showed all the out ward marks of courtesy. In his answer he called his father sir with great respect, but it was all a sham. But the second son although he showed unwillingness to start with and even refusal, he allowed his mind to dwell on the request, he clearly gave it some thought and having given it some thought he changed his mind.
We are called to keep open minds, to develop our understanding through a greater knowledge. We live in an ever changing world and are own lives, circumstances and relationships also are ever changing. So, we can never stand still emotionally and intellectually.
Like so many people I’m not a great fan of change. I admit I love being stuck in my ways but there has been many times when I know I have said no to something, then thought better of it and actually it turns out well and something worthwhile has been experienced. I am sure you can all think of things too.
What is so important here is that we encourage each other, and we look beyond ourselves, in other words we “empty ourselves of ourselves.”
Paul in his letter to the Philippians, a letter which is full of encouragement and advice says very aptly, “Let each of you look not to your own interests But to the interests of others Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” Philippians 2:4
Christians, Paul says should think and act like Christ. They should be humble and think more about others than themselves. He emphasises the importance of humility. Paul then draws on a bit of prose or song which must have been known to his readers and is familiar to us as a hymn.
The hymn begins by affirming that Jesus Christ had the nature of God from the beginning. However, he chose to “empty” himself by becoming a servant in the form of a human being. Christ humbled himself, not only did he set aside his majesty to come to dwell among us human beings, but he was willing to subject himself to death on a cross for our salvation. Yet God chose to exalt him to the highest place, a clear reference to the resurrection and ascension of Christ. These great events demonstrated that Christ was divine, and that every knee should bow at his name and confess that he is indeed Lord.
And surely that is our ultimate response.