On a wet and windy day, we have just celebrated Harvest Festival and welcomed people back as part of the national 'Back to Church Sunday' (although people are welcome back any other Sunday too, of course!).
Our harvest gifts are going to LEWCAS, a charity which works with asylum seekers, providing them with food and other support. A collection was also taken for WaterAid, which works to provide people with clean drinking water, and the Manna Society which works with the homeless near Waterloo.
Peter preached on today's gospel reading, reminding us to consider the ways our needs are met, and provided us with plenty to think about in his story about 'stone soup'!
Today's Gospel: Matthew 6: 25-33
Jesus said: 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? So do not worry, do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?" It is the pagans who set there hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well.
1 comment:
I must say I think the King James sounds much better and Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? makes more sense in the King James version as cubit is a measurement of length not time.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
(Not sure what the last line actually means but it sounds pretty good - how does the alternative version give it?)
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