The Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Reflection by Canon Leslie

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is Matthew’s account of Jesus feeding the five thousand. But it is worth remembering how Matthew sets the scene for this event. When Matthew closes the little Book of Parables at the end of chapter 13, Jesus finds out just how tough life can be. Jesus goes to his home town and he is not made welcome. Then as he leaves his home town sad news reaches Jesus about how John the Baptist had been murdered. Jesus goes off by boat to seek solitude.
 
However, when he lands, instead of finding solitude, Jesus finds a huge crowd waiting for him. Jesus’ heart goes out to the crowd. He heals the sick. He feeds the hungry. The crowd experiences what life is like when God reigns. And the disciples have a full part to play in making all this work.
 
For the Christian community the feeding of the five thousand looks forward to the Last Supper and to the Eucharist celebrated in our cathedrals and churches. To prepare for this Sunday’s service I invited those of you who want to do some thinking beforehand to focus on the image of the picnic, just as Teddy Horsley is doing in today’s picture. Serious reflection on his experiences of picnics helped Teddy Horsley to prepare for his participation in the Eucharistic celebration.
 
Next week the image to help us prepare for participation in the Sunday service, whether offline in the Cathedral or online at home, is gales, when the Gospel reading is Matthew’s narrative concerning Jesus’ stilling of the storm. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials. Please send us your ideas and photos of the things you may create; email them to [email protected].
 
We warmly invite you to join us in worship online by watching our pre-recorded service video that will go live at 10:30am:  

​Teddy Horsley sends his Sunday greetings to all.
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Canon Leslie