24/9/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Services this week
Sun 24 Sep
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
Thurs 28 Sep
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
Dates for your diary
Sun 24 Sep
1pm - celebration of Lay Ministry at Newcastle Cathedral
Sun 1 Oct
11am - Harvest celebration
and change of hub service location to Venerable Bede.
Thurs 5 Oct
12pm - Exploring Faith introductory session and lunch, at Ven Bede
News
Don't forget! Move to Ven Bede next Sunday
From 1st October the Hub service will be at 11am every Sunday at the Venerable Bede, West Road, NE4 8AP.
Something Wonderful - Art Club auction success!
We held our first ever art club auction on Thursday to raise funds for the Something Wonderful project!
It was amazing to see the artists' work being celebrated. There are some donations to come through, but at first count we have made over £600!
Huge thanks to the Tyneside Irish Centre for giving us a venue.
Many of the works are still for sale (at the discretion of each artist), if there are any particular works you are interested in, then come along to during the art club and speak to Petra.
There is also a booklet celebrating the work of all the artists, which will be on sale at St James for £6.
Lay Ministry celebration service
We are so proud of the 6 members of our community who have been training for the last year to become Authorised Lay Ministers in worship and pastoral care.
We'll be celebrating with them 1pm at the cathedral on 24th September - come and join us!
Harvest festival
We will be holding our annual Harvest festival at 11am on Sunday 1st October at the Venerable Bede.
We will have a bring and share supper after. So please bring a dish!
Please also bring donations of non-perishable food items and toiletries. These will be given to the foodbank. You will also be able to give financially if you prefer.
This will also be our first hub service back at the Ven Bede, the hub service will continue there at 11am on Sundays for the rest of the winter.
(Please note this will be a team service so there will be no other services in the team that day. This is a change to the original date to enable us all to attend the celebration of lay ministry on 24th September)
Coming soon - Exploring Faith group
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR FAITH?
KNOW SOMEBODY WHO YOU MIGHT INVITE?
Group will start in October
Come along for 12pm for Lunch and an introductory session at Ven Bede on Thursday 5th October to find out more.
(Please note the change of date to what was originally advertised)
Sunday Worship
Sunday 24th September 2023
16th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 20
Green
Sermon
Revd David
Jesus loved to tell stories. ‘Parables’ is the special name but basically, they are stories. Stories that pack a punch, can stop us in our tracks and make us think. What was today’s story, about? I wonder if you identify with anyone in the story, or where you have sympathy.
Of course, it comes from a different world, not our world of city life, minimum wages, trades unions, wage bargaining and the welfare state. A world, ruled by the seasons, agriculture and agricultural labour were the bed rock on which society was built. In June I spent some time in a wine growing area in Italy. Wine tourism is now a big thing and people pay a lot of money for the ‘experience’, to savour the idyllic life of slow food and fine wine. Owning a vineyard along with your yacht is a dream for the super-rich.
This story is more realistic. Maybe the first century world is not so different to our own after all. In the Italian vineyard I heard how much of the manual labour is done by migrant workers who struggle to get by in a world where employment is scarce and precarious. For some, they are the lucky ones, plenty of others are still desperate for any kind of work. You don’t have to travel far to find places like the marketplace in the story where people turn up at crack of dawn and wait around desperate to be hired, desperate for that day’s work which can make the difference between eating or going hungry.
Let’s look again at the story. Those workers taken on at dawn, their first reaction is one of relief they have a job, the promise of a day’s wages. Their wives and families will be pleased. They won’t be going back empty handed. They got what they came for, what they needed, and feel thankful. Fast forward to the end of the story and what a difference, when they get their day’s pay not a trace of gratitude, they are filled with resentment and the grumbling begins. It’s not that they’ve been cheated, they were paid exactly what was agreed, but someone else got a better deal. It’s not fair! They worked twelve hours, and through the heat of the day, these others, just one hour, yet both got the same pay -outrageous! It is hard not to feel sympathetic, wouldn’t we feel the same?
But as the owner points out he has done nothing wrong. They agreed a wage and they were paid it. They have not been short-changed or cheated in any way. Their anger is simply because the owner has been generous to the others and made their wages up, putting them all on a level. As he points out, that was entirely his business, and really makes no difference to them, they still have what they need. So why has the gratitude they felt all gone? Because they look round and see someone else did better. ‘Why should you be jealous because I am generous? ‘
So what is this about? Jesus introduces it with the words , ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…’ this is a message not about economics but about what God is like and what he wants for his people. Again, it helps if we recall the world in which Jesus lived, this time the religious world. Many religious people like the Pharisees worked hard to keep the Jewish law, that was what religion meant, keeping the commandments, not just ten but more than four hundred rules that affected every part of daily life. It was not easy and for many the demands were just too great, not necessarily the moral demands, although those are the ones we often think of, some trades, forms of work or types of sickness, put you firmly in the law-breaker category. Jesus, far from excluding any of these people made a point of being with them, listening to them, telling his stories, and calling them to follow him. ‘I did not come to call the righteous but sinners’, ‘Look the tax-collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of heaven before you.’ How did the ‘righteous’ react? Grumbling, resentment, contempt, suspicion, and eventually the hatred that will push Jesus to His death on the cross. This story is a challenge to that audience.
The story is not just for Jesus’ contemporaries, we may not have Pharisees and tax collectors in the same way today, but the human emotions and self-understandings the story exposes still ring true. Looking at others with a feeling of superiority, looking at God with a feeling of entitlement, showing resentment and grumbling when God acts in a different way with others, ‘that’s not fair’, resenting His generosity instead of celebrating it.
Perhaps the fact that our sympathy is with the hard workers who bore the heat of the day is no accident. God is generous, more generous than we can imagine or understand he pours his grace and love out freely. Even our resentment is understood, he just wants us to get beyond it. Like the elder brother in the story of the lost son, his father has no wish to exclude him, he just wants him to come in and join the party. Grace is available for all even the grumblers. Our needs are provided for in the most generous of ways so why look around at our neighbour and become bitter? If we keep God’s generosity in focus, are truly thankful for what we have received, then all resentment will fall away.
Next week our Diocese marks ‘Generosity week’, on Sunday we will have our Harvest celebration. Let’s try and focus more fully on God’s generous provision for us and ask how we can mirror that love in every part of our lives. Amen
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michell Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Tayor
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Esther Kolie
Rest in peace
Liz Holliman
Jeanne Crowe
Marjorie Taylor
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
Collect
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear
the prayers of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
or
Lord of creation,
whose glory is around and within us:
open our eyes to your wonders,
that we may serve you with reverence
and know your peace at our lives’ end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Related:
Philippians 1.21–end
Philippians 1.21-end 21For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. 23I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; 24but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. 25Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, 26so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. 27 Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, 28and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. 29For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well— 30since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
This is the word of the Lord. All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. All: Glory to you, O Lord.
Matthew 20.1–16
20‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place; 4and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. 5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” 7They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” 13But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.