Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 8 September 2024). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship also makes provision ‘for pastoral reasons’ for celebrating the Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 September.
Later this morning, I am reading one of the lessons at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 7: 24-37 (NRSVA):
24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28 But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29 Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.’ 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’
Today’s Reflection:
Today is the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading in Orthodox churches today is Luke 1: 39-49, 56, which includes the words of the canticle Magnificat:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed
In the traditional icon, Saint Anna and Saint Joachim are depicted embracing to indicate the joy of all humanity at this blessed event. The icon and the feast acknowledge a transition from barrenness to life. This foreshadows what is offered through Christ – the transformation from death to eternal life.
The icon and this feast prefigure the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. But there is a stark contrast between her Nativity and his Nativity: he will be born in a cold and hostile setting, while she is born in a safe and comfortable place. Saint Andrew of Crete writes: ‘This day is for us the beginning of all holy days. It is the door to kindness and truth.’
At the Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Startford, this morning, the Gospel reading (Mark 7: 24-37) includes two healing stories: the story of the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre who demands healing for her daughter; and the deaf man who is healed in Sidon.
The story of the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre and her daughter is one of my favourite stories in the Gospels, alongside those of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42) and the Resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene (see Mark 16: 9 and John 20).
I have reflected often on the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and I have compared their story with the women in one of the great Greek tragedies, The Phoenician Woman by Euripides.
The version of this episode in Saint Matthew’s was the weekday Lectionary Gospel reading for Holy Communion once again just a month ago (7 August 2024).
However, this morning I have been asked to read the Epistle reading (James 2: 1-10 [11-13] 14-17) at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. It has such a powerful and compelling message that I feel it needs no comment or explication:
James 2: 1-10 [11-13] 14-17:
1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [11 For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.]
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 8 September 2024, Trinity XV):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘What does the holy cross mean to you?’ This theme is introduced today with a reflection by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG:
Each year, on 14 September, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Cross. Known as ‘Holy Cross Day’ throughout the majority of the Anglican Communion, this major feast of the Church reminds us to boast in nothing ‘except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Galatians 6: 14).
The cross holds very significant importance for all Christians. It is upon the cross that Jesus was crucified and sacrificed himself for us and as such it is an important symbol – we regularly make the sign of the cross, and many of us bow to the cross in our liturgy.
When you reflect or look at the cross what is it that you think about? I always think about how powerful it is that Jesus died for me, to take away all my sin, and my pain, and in him I am made anew. He made the ultimate sacrifice for me, for you, for all of mankind. God has taken what could be a terrible symbol of death and made it a symbol of love and hope.
Whatever you think about when you look at the cross, it serves as a reminder of the kind of live we are to live as Christians. Christ commands each of his disciples to ‘take up his cross and follow [him]’ (Matthew 16: 24), freeing us to participate in God’s mission in the world, doing the good works he has prepared for us (Ephesians 2: 10).
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 8 September 2024, Trinity XV) invites us to pray in the words of an Arabic hymn:
Oh, God of peace and safety
Pour your peace on us
Oh, God of peace,
Grant peace in our heart.
The Collect:
God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
The Syro-Phoenician Woman … this morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 7: 24-37 (Icon: Brother Robert Lentz, OFM)Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised 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
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