Please join to celebrate and give thanks
at the Mortimer, MWE & Padworth
Parish Eucharist
on Sunday 27th September 2020
at 10.00 am
at St John’s Church, Mortimer,
& online at ZOOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6931233940
If you have
zoom difficulties please contact the tech. team at 01189333136
Prayer Thought: Jesus’ parable about two sons who don’t do what they say
reveals surprises about the most unlikely people who actually do God’s will and
serve others and thereby go ahead of the rest into God’s kingdom. St Paul
encourages us to look to Christ as our model of humility and service and, like
Jesus, look to the needs and interests of others above our own. St Paul urges
us to look to find the nourishment we need in the broken bread and shared cup
which gives strength to respond to Christ’s call and to offer our lives for the
sake of our needy world.
Reflections
on this week’s Gospel passage…
At
the end of this week’s Gospel is a story to which every child, and everyone who
ever was a child, and all parents can relate. How often when children are asked
by their parents to do chores do we hear in their response echoes of the same
inner and outer conflict expressed in Jesus’ parable of the two sons and their
father. It’s the conflict between obedience and rebellion; it’s the conflict
between recognizing what needs to be done and yet resenting authority; resenting
not being autonomous and completely free to do whatever I choose and when I
choose; and to do things my own way. It’s the conflict which arises in us when
we hear a voice calling to us beyond our own inner voice and recognize that if
we are to do wholeheartedly what we are being called to do then that will,
inevitably, constrain and shape our own inner desires and our will.
The
key to this passage is Jesus’ question - ‘Which of the two did the will of the
Father?’ Jesus addresses what the sons actually did and not what
they said. He cracks open the disparity between what is said and
what is done.
Jesus
wants us to focus on what we do. His parable is a call to integrity. It is,
quite bluntly, a parable about ‘putting our money where our mouth is.’ This
week’s parable challenges us to ask ourselves: do our words match our
convictions; do our deeds match our words? God bless
