Pew Sheet, Sunday, August 11th 2024. Eleventh Sunday after Trinity / Proper 14
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our Rural Dean, the Reverend Canon David Meakin who died at home surrounded by his family in Whitchurch on Wednesday morning after a brief but very debilitating illness. Those of us who knew David are enormously grateful for his twenty years of ministry in the Deanery, and I am particularly indebted to him for the help and support he provided to me in the short time I have been in post here.
Many of us seldom think beyond the realms of our own parishes, and few of us probably know what a rural dean actually does; but for the clergy, the rural or area dean, together with the archdeacon, plays a crucial part in supporting them in what can sometimes feel like a very lonely and isolated calling, and providing a link between them and the wider diocese, whether dealing with a graveyard issue, arbitrating between different parties in a parish when they fail to see eye to eye; or providing support and care in times of personal need or crisis. It is unglamorous work and is often hidden from the view of most in the Church, as indeed it should be, but it is no less important for that.
In announcing David’s death, Bishop Steven reminded us that David continued to preach and preside in Whitchurch until the penultimate Sunday of his life on Sunday the 28th of July, and he attended church, albeit in a wheelchair, as a member of the congregation just four days before he died. He wanted to be in church with his congregation one more time, even though unable to take the service himself; a reminder that we clergy too are simply members of God’s Church like everyone else, and that it is good to be a simple worshipper in the pews from time to time, for that is the first and most important calling of any of us, no matter what our job description or vocation might be.
We are all, if we love and serve the Lord Jesus, his disciples; and there is no greater or higher calling than this. Today’s Collect reminds us though, that this calling comes at a great cost, a dying to the self and the sacrifice of everything we may have if we want to own that pearl of wisdom, which is the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and experiencing through him, the love of our heavenly Father who with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is ‘the end of all of our searching’. This is our ultimate destination, to finally see face to face the one we have served, in whatever capacity, at our life’s end, and to hear, like David, those precious words, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter now into your rest.” May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.
It is easy when reading passages such as those from today’s Gospel reading, to forget just how radical and extreme some of Jesus’ pronouncements were. The Talmud (or Law of Moses), which most of Jesus’ near contemporaries followed, expressly forbade the consumption of blood or human flesh, so it is easy to see why so many of Jesus’ detractors were incensed at the suggestion that we might ‘eat his flesh’ and ‘drink his blood’, for in its literal sense, this is anathema for any self-respecting Jew. As is often the case however, Jesus’ detractors were looking at the literal meaning of his words rather than the symbolic, but it is here that we find the true meaning of his message for his followers.
It has been estimated that a sixth of all the laws in the Talmud relate to the precise and exacting requirements placed on the ancient Israelites to make different types of sacrifice to YHWH (or God Almighty). Amongst these were the burnt offerings, and the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the trespass offerings, as well as various types of peace offerings at various times of the year. But there was also the daily burnt offering of sacrificial lambs every morning and evening in the Temple, as well as those for ceremonial cleansing and for personal sin (as opposed to the nation’s sin as a corporate body).
Such a huge cost in animal lives might shock us today were it not for the fact that most of these animals were not simply burned or wasted, but were used to feed the Levitical priests and their families, who had no land of their own on which to raise livestock, and the many thousands of worshippers visiting the temple each day, eaten communally once the blood had been shed on the altar as an atonement for sin. In speaking as he does, Jesus equates himself with the sacrificial lamb sacrificed and consumed each day, once in the morning and once in the evening; the remains of which were eaten once the choicest bits were consumed by fire by the temple community.
Jesus is telling his listeners that he will one day be sacrificed for the sins of the many, and just as those serving in the temple derived no benefit from the sacrifice unless they shared in the communal meal which followed, neither do we, unless we participate in this great love feast or ‘agape’ meal which formed the early basis of our very first Holy Communion services each Sunday in the same way that God fed Elijah. Not because he was worthy, for he had just satiated his own blood lust by murdering the prophets of Baal even though he had proven his ascendency over them by calling down fire upon his offerings when their prayers to do likewise had failed, but so that he might endure the fast God was calling him to before identifying Elisha, the one who would complete his life’s work when he had gone.
Collect
God of glory, the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and give all that we have, to gain the pearl of wisdom beyond all price,
through our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Kings 19-4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. Elijah ate and drank; and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ So he got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
John 6:35, 41-51
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now
say, “I have come down from heaven”?’
And Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
Please pray this week for:
Heidi, David’s wife, his children and family members. Pray too for David’s many friends here in Winslow and throughout the deanery, thinking especially of David and Julie Lloyd, and all those involved in the emotional labour of caring for the bereaved, remembering Colleen and Eugene from our own congregation, and all the team at Heritage. Please do pray as well for Didier, that he will return refreshed from his holiday, and for Steve, as he goes on retreat from Monday to Wednesday of next week.
This Week’s Events
Monday
Bell ringing at 7.30pm in St Laurence. Contact Jan on 07835 461361.
Tuesday (Jeremy Taylor, Bishop and Teacher of the Faith, 1667; Florence Nightingale, Nurse Reformer, 1910; and Octavia Hill, Social Reformer, 1912)
Zoom Morning Prayer at 9am ID: 748 9970 4493 Password: Trinity or contact Didier on [email protected]
Morning Coffee for Breast Cancer Now, 10.30 – 12.00 noon at the Royal British Legion.
Wednesday (Maximillian Kolbe, Friar and Martyr, 1941)
Morning Coffee from 10.00-11.45 in the St Laurence Rooms.
Midweek Holy Communion at 12.00 noon, St Laurence Church.
Thursday (The Blessed Virgin Mary)
Pastoral Care
Please call the usual number: 07305 271148 and the churchwardens will pass any urgent calls on as needed while Steve is away.