25th August 2024 10.30am – 13th Sunday after Trinity – Eucharist

The Readings

Ephesians 6.10-20

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

John 6.56-69

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Scripture Quotations are from: New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Sermon
By The Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings.

Many years ago when I was a student, I had a friend who was a Quaker.
His father was a house master at a Quaker boarding school in Ackworth, near
Pontefract, and sometimes in the holidays I went to stay with them. The
masters and their families lived in houses in the school grounds.

On Sunday, I would go with them to their service, which they called a meeting
for worship. The boys at the school had all gone home for the holidays, and
many of the teachers had gone as well. Only a few masters and their wives
were left, and so they held the meeting for worship, not in the large school
hall, but in a much smaller teachers’ common room.

About twenty or so chairs were put out in a semi-circle round an enormous
fireplace – which in winter had an enormous log fire in it.

As you may know, Quaker worship is completely silent. The meeting started
when the first person arrived and sat down. It ended an hour later when the
two elders – like our churchwardens – stood up and shook hands with each
other. In between, nothing was said or done. Just silence.

The idea was that you would empty your mind of all the day to day clutter that
it was filled with and wait for the Holy Spirit to engage with you in some way.
Occasionally, one of the worshippers might feel moved by the Spirit to stand
and say something aloud; but that was very rare and it never happened
during the times I was there. Nothing broke the silence.

The heart of religion they believed lay in our encounter with the Spirit of God
– and God’s Spirit was like the wind – unseen, intangible, blowing where he
willed. You couldn’t reach out and take hold of the Spirit. But what you could
do was wait upon the Spirit in silence, emptying your mind.

This contrasted somewhat with all the things that made worship possible for
me. I wanted something to look at: an altar, a cross, some candles. I wanted
a Bible, a prayer book, a hymn book, some bread and wine - so that I could
hear the scriptures read, so that I could say prayers and sing, and see bread
broken and wine outpoured.

But for the Quakers, all these things, they believed, crowded out the Holy
Spirit. How could you know the Spirit or hear what the Spirit might be saying
to you if your mind was distracted all the time by such material things.
And behind this, I think, lay a deeper objection: the idea that the material
world, the physical world, the world we live our lives in, was quite separate
from the realm of the spirit. God is spirit, and the Spirit blows where he wills
and cannot be flesh and blood, bread and wine.

I thought about my old Quaker friends when I read the gospel for today. The
people at the time of Jesus seem to be having similar issues, with some
wanting to draw that sharp line between material things and things of the
spirit.

Admittedly, Jesus does say things which at that time must have seemed very
puzzling – hard sayings. He says they are to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
How can such a shockingly physical act – eating and drinking – have
anything spiritual about it?

Only later will they realise that he is talking about the bread and wine that, at
the Last Supper, he says is his body broken and his blood outpoured. Then,
after his death and resurrection, they are to go on eating and drinking bread
and wine, both as a way of remembering him, but more particularly, a way of
receiving him spiritually into themselves. The material, the physical is not in
opposition to the spiritual but the means by which we human beings receive
the divine spirit week by week.

At the heart of our faith, we don’t see this hard separation of the material and
the spiritual. We have understood that God, who is Spirit, became flesh and
blood in Christ Jesus. This is the mystery that lies at the heart of the Christian
religion.

And this is how God, who is Spirit, can save us, can transform our lives;
because in Christ what is human, what is fleshly, what is material, is taken up
into God, who is Spirit.

I greatly admire the hard discipline of my former Quaker friends. But I don’t
believe that Christianity teaches us that what is material, physical, fleshly gets
in the way of the Spirit.

On the contrary, there is no place on earth where God, who is Spirit, has
been closer to the human race than in Jesus Christ.

And there is no place where we can be closer to Jesus Christ than when we
take into our physical selves the blessed sacrament of bread and wine.

The Prayers
Prepared by Oli.

Lord God, thank you for our shared experiences with friends and families over this summer season. We pray for children starting school for the first time in the coming weeks, as well as those going back to school. We pray for those who find school difficult and we ask that they know your presence.
Lord in your mercy...

Lord God, we thank you for collaboration and community. We pray that you be with the mission partnership as we prepare for the mission area weekend in a few weeks time. We pray too for the children’s work at St. Mary’s as this starts up next month.
Lord in your mercy...

Lord God, as we enter the season of creationtide, we pray that you help us to act with your creation and the climate in mind - when at home, or at work, or travelling locally or further afield. We pray you give us the courage to change longstanding practices which damage this precious world you have entrusted to us to protect.
Lord in your mercy...

Lord God, we pray for those who are fleeing conflict or unstable situations to seek a life safe from danger. We pray for those vulnerable groups who are left with no alternative but to take extreme risks to reach a safe place to live, for example by crossing hazardous waters.
Lord in your mercy...

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the early harvest and the things which sustain us. As the days begin to shorten again and we approach autumn, help us to think about what we want to hold on to or let go from this season, to see us through the next season.
Lord in your mercy...

Lord God be with Those in despair and darkness as a result of sickness in body mind or spirit, have died, or who have faced recent bereavement. help them to know the hope and light of Christ. We hold them in a moment of silence before you now…
Merciful Father...

St Marys Walkley

The Church on the Road: inclusive, eucharistic, a safe place to be with God

25th August 2024 10.30am – 13th Sunday after Trinity – Eucharist