The Tew Benefice

Hymns A and M (rev.)

311 Lead us heavenly  Father, lead us

351 I heard the voice of Jesus say

205 Love Divine, all loves excelling

216 Rejoice the Lord is King

Collect

O Lord, who hast taught us

that all our doings without charity are nothing worth:

send thy Holy Spirit

and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity,

the very bond of peace and of all virtues

without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee;

grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,

who liveth and reigneth with thee,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

 Post Communion

O loving Father,

we thank thee for feeding us at the supper of thy Son:

sustain us with thy Spirit

that we, serving thee here on earth,

may come at last to the fullness of thy joy in heaven

and be partakers of thine eternal banquet

with Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the previous chapter Abraham laughs at the idea of God providing him with a son through his aged wife Sarah. Now, we read a small part of a mysterious event where God re-affirms His promise that, through Sarah’s son, ‘Abraham will … become a great…nation … all nations on earth will be blessed through him.’ This time it is Sarah who laughs disbelievingly! As Walter Brueggemann remarks, this story shows how,‘faith is not a reasonable act that fits into the normal scheme of life’.

From the earliest times Christians understood this story as a foreshadowing of a revelation of the Trinity. Rowan Williams explains it as, ‘three agents sharing one agency’.

First Reading

Genesis 18: 1-8

The Lord appeared to Abraham^a by the oaks^b of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. ²He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. ³He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ ⁶And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures^c of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ ⁷Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. ⁸Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 9 They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ ¹⁰Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ ¹³The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” ¹⁴Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’

 Gospel Acclaimation

Alleluia This is my commandment said the Lord, Go and bear fruit, fruit that will last Alleluia

 In these few verses the evangelist gives us an idea of the mind and heart of Jesus: His purpose to explain God’s desire for His world and to heal in every way the ‘harassed and helpless’ people who surrounded Him in such great need. We are told of the ‘compassion’ of Jesus. The Greek word used is the strongest – moved to the very depths of Hisbeing by the world’s pain. He is revealing God’s immense love for them. This, the first book of the New Testament, forms the bridge between Act

1 and Act 2 of the divine drama. So, it is perhaps deliberately tha tMatthew tells us that Jesus appoints the Twelve to proclaim the good news first to ‘the lost sheep of Israel’.

Gospel

Matthew 9:35 -10:8

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; ³⁸therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’.Then Jesus^a summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. ²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;^b 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”^c 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,^d cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

 For your Prayers:

Ryan Walker, Victoria Gibbens, Tim Mayne, Robert Mayne, Stewart Douglas