Friday 13 November 2020

November 15 Service of Worship

 





The Service for Pentecost 24 is provided by Rev. Tim Sale for St. Paul's Anglican Church Fort Garry Winnipeg

Welcome
Acknowledgement of The Land 

Opening: God Whose Giving

God, whose giving knows no ending, from your rich and endless store
Nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom, costly cross, grave’s shattered door
Gifted by you, we turn to you, offering up ourselves in praise;
Thankful song shall rise forever, gracious Donor of our days.

Skills and time are ours for pressing toward the goals of Christ, your Son:
All at peace in health and freedom, races joined, the church made one.
Now direct our daily labour, lest we strive for self alone.
Born with talents, make us servants fit to answer at your throne.

Treasure, too, you have entrusted, gain through powers your grace conferred,
Ours to use for home and kindred, and to spread the gospel word.
Open wide our hands in sharing, as we heed Christ’s ageless call, 
Healing, teaching, and reclaiming, serving you by loving all.


Prayer of Approach

Come to the living God,
Come to stand alongside the poor,
Come to struggle with those who seek freedom
Come to resist all that offends God’s justice
Come to the living, disturbing God.

Collect
Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to be the light of the world.
Free us from all that darkens and ensnares us, and bring us to eternal light and joy;
through the power of him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Psalm 123

REFRAIN Our eyes look to God, until God shows us mercy.

To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to our God, until God show us mercy. R

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt,
Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud. R


A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11

Gradual: Awake! Awake! Fling Off the Night

Awake! Awake! Fling off the night,
For God has sent a glorious light,
And we who live in Christ’s new day
Must works of darkness put away.

Awake and sing, with praises strong,
In psalm and hymn and spirit song.
Let love our words and works renew
With all that’s good and right and true.

Let in the light; all sin expose
To Christ, whose life no darkness knows.
Before the cross expectant kneel,
That Christ may judge, and judging, heal.

Then rise as children of the light.
Be neither proud, nor hide from sight.
Be careful how you live, and wise
To sift the truth from cunning lies.

Through Christ give thanks to God, and say
To other sleepers on the way:
“Awake, and rise up from the dead
That Christ may shine on you instead!”

Gospel 
 THE HOLY GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO MATTHEW  
25:14-30

Jesus said, "For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here; you have what is yours.' But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Homily

The Peril of Whistle-blowers


Today we have Matthew’s telling of the parable of the Talents. Just so you know, a talent in biblical times was worth 6,000 denarii, when the normal wage for a day was 1 denarii. The one with 10 silver talents had the equivalent of $280,000 in today’s dollars, but with much, much more purchasing power in Jesus time. For eons, this parable has been understood to be about God’s giving of resources to three senior retainers (leaders/bureaucrats) to invest in bringing God’s kingdom to fruition. Two of them meet his approved levels of return (100%), while the third simply hides the money and gives it back. He hasn’t actually done anything wrong; he didn’t steal it… just didn’t use it for gain. He gets fired, driven out, unlikely to survive in that harsh world, expect perhaps as a beggar. For years we have read that story as telling us we have to use our skills, bring home the bacon, build the kin-dom. We are warned that if we don’t, we will miss our place in the kin-dom and be cast into outer darkness. Some commentators see the parable as condemning the temple authorities who kept control of access to the faith with high prices and fees, unaffordable to the slaves and peasants, who comprised more than 90% of the population. They had corrupted the faith.

But over the years, I’ve had a hard time seeing this hard and ruthless rich man as “God” in the parable, and the third man as so evil as to be cast into outer darkness. So…………

Let Peter Globensky tell us a slightly different story; a new parable if you wish.

Once there was a very wealthy Winnipegger. He owned a lot of real estate, and had amassed a great deal of capital. He had a large bureaucracy of managers who looked after his very complex affairs. He paid them well, but also allowed them to have interests on the side, as long as these interests didn’t interfere with his affairs, or cause them to miss their annual performance targets. His targets were hard…. Five year returns of 100% on invested capital.

In his portfolio were many older buildings, in poor repair, whose occupants were usually working class poor, or new immigrants, or those on social assistance. There was also a shortage of “affordable” housing in the city and rents were high in newer buildings. Families pretty much had to have incomes of $50,000 or more to afford a 2 bedroom new apartment. He also like to speculate on land, preferably when he had “private” advance notice of what might happen near that land in future.

So this wealthy land-owner, who was about 65, decided to retire to somewhere warm, perhaps the Mediterranean, or some tax haven in the Caribbean. He wanted to golf and only wanted to come back during warm summer days every five years or so.

He trusted his bureaucrats, so he gave the most senior access to a $50M line of credit, the next $30M and a third $10M, and told them they had five years to see what they could do.

The first took 25 older properties, 5 each year, which had low assessment and low values, evicted the tenants, did cheap renovations, like putting lipstick on a pig and sold them all for a huge gain, more than 100%. He kept the excess and was a happy man.

The second quietly bribed a civic official to find out about some upcoming zoning changes, and under cover of several real estate brokers, bought nearby land that had been vacant and low-value, and when the new zoning plan went through, made a bundle, and also was a happy man.

The third man took a look at his options, thought hard, left the $10M in the line of credit, and kept about his normal duties for five long years.

Finally, the owner came for his profits, landing in Winnipeg one fine summer day. He gathered a big meeting of all the bureaucrats and all the other staff to hear the results. At the reports of the first 2 senior managers, he was a happy camper, and promised more capital in future to work with. But then the third one spoke, saying “Boss, I know you are a hard man, relentless in your search for profit. You want rewards where you’ve not really worked for them, and you don’t care how they come, or what we have to do to get them, as long as it’s borderline legal, or we don’t get caught.” Of course, the Boss fired him on the spot and said “No reference letter for you… you’ll never get another job in this town!!!”.

As you can tell, there are a couple of major changes in my story. First, the “boss” is a miserable profiteer, with no scruples. He exploits where he can, and the poor are readily available to exploit.

No “God” figure for sure. The other change is a little harder to see. In my story, the third bureaucrat lays bare the morals and ethics of the rich man in front of all his staff. They all knew this was his way, but none dared say the words until now. He is, in the words of one scholar, a whistle-blower. However, even with his courageous speech, he is alone. No one else joined him, and he paid the price of telling uncomfortable truth to power. He is actually more of a Jesus figure, in contrast to the rest of the cast.

In this parable, Jesus unmasks once again, the oppression of both the Temple rule and the corresponding exploitive rule of landowners and local elite. Both use “retainers”, Scribes and Pharisees, and senior slaves-bureaucrats. Both are in it for themselves alone. Both are heedless of the prophetic call for justice. Jesus’s hearers, the peasants and lower classes knew clearly what the story meant, but in the face of military might and temple authority they were powerless to act. All they could do was witness a coming crucifixion, an organized murder of an inconvenient prophet.

It is lonely speaking truth to power. We need a community of support to lay bare the realities of oppression and injustice, and a movement undergirding that community. Those times when our world has been turned from injustice all had powerful movements driving their cause. That’s why we need to align ourselves with such movements in working for justice and peace. Prophets get killed, as do whistle-blowers. Their testimony can be powerful motivators, forming a movement, alone, they often find themselves on a cross.

Affirmation of Faith:
We believe in light beyond our seeing, flowing forth from the flame of life in God
Who goes on creating in us down through the ages.

We believe in healing beyond our knowing from the Christ whose robe stands close
To the reach of our hand and the pain of our struggle, beyond the end of time

We believe in the energy of God's spirit, stirring in our being With a rhythm of courage and passion,
Moving our feet to risk Christ's way again
As those who are always called to be the humble, human witnesses to the faithfulness of God.
(from The Glory of Blood Sweat & Tears by Dorothy McRae-McMahon, p. 74)

Offertory: We Come to the Hungry Feast

We come to the hungry feast, hungry for the word of peace.
To hungry hearts unsatisfied the love of God is not denied.
We come, we come to the hungry feast.

We come to the hungry feast, hungry for a world released
From hungry people of every kind; the poor in body, poor in mind.
We come, we come to the hungry feast.

We come to the hungry feast, hungry that the hunger cease,
And knowing, though we eat out fill, the hunger will stay with us: still,
We come, we come to the hungry feast.

Intercessions:


Let us offer thanksgiving for all the blessings of this life... (Silence)

Let us remember those who suffer from illness, from painful memories, from torture, from victimization, especially those hurt by the church or its members... (Silence)

Let us pray for the outcasts, the prisoners, the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the unemployed, the exploited... (Silence)

Let us pray for the coming of justice in the world, for peace that is a just reconciliation, for the earth on which we walk and to which we will one day return... (Silence)

Let us pray for ourselves, trusting in God's wisdom and compassion... (Silence)

For all our prayers, spoken and unspoken, in your Mercy answer. Amen

The Prayer of Jesus from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain Bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all, Loving God in Whom is heaven:

The hallowing of Your Name echo through the universe;
The way of Your justice be followed by the peoples of the world;
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings;
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
Sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trial too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that us evil, free us.
for You reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen.

Closing  Sent Out in Jesus’ Name

Sent out in Jesus’ name, our hands are ready now
To make the world the place in which the kingdom comes.

The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain
In to a world of love, of justice and of peace.
The task is our to do, to really set it free.
O, help us to obey, and carry out your will.


The Blessing:

As we have been gathered, so must we be sown back into the world to witness to the power of God's transforming love, to support and challenge each other, to bring healing and justice to the world around us.
And now may the God who shakes heaven and earth,
Whom death could not contain,
Who lives to disturb and heal us,
Bless us with the power to go forth and proclaim the gospel.  Amen.

A special thanks to our readers and singers, and to all of you for joining us at home.

Please join us again next week to meet with…..

The Sheep and the Goats!

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