The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity – Reflection by Canon Leslie

​The Gospel reading for this Sunday is from Matthew’s fourth block of Jesus’ teaching. This is the chapter on the relationships among Christians, or life in the church, and is sometimes described as a community rule. There are a number of different ways to read this teaching, but perhaps the most helpful way is to note how Matthew hinges this teaching around his application of the parable of the lost sheep.
 
In his community rule Matthew seems to be saying that the Church (the followers of Jesus) have a responsibility to seek those who have lost their way, just as the shepherd has a responsibility to seek the lost sheep.
 
The problem for the readers of Matthew’s Gospel comes with assessing the mechanism that Matthew proposes for dealing with those who refuse to be found.
 
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 hide and seek. In today’s picture from his book Hide and Seek, Teddy Horsley shows just how much he likes playing this game.
 
Next week the image to help us prepare for participation in the Sunday service, whether offline in the Cathedral or online at home, is the game of the mender, when the Gospel reading, still from Matthew’s community rule, is about forgiveness. 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].
 
If you’d like to learn more about Teddy Horsley and his writings, visit his website: https://teddyhorsley.org/, or his page on the website of St. Mary’s Centre: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/TeddyHorsley.html.
 
We warmly invite you to join us in worship online here (video goes live at 10:30am):
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Teddy Horsley sends his Sunday greetings to all.
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Canon Leslie