11 September 202612 September 2026

Trinity 15 / Pentecost 16

Sunday, 13/09/2026

SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE:

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord. (Psalm 114)

HYMN

GREETING

Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

COLLECT FOR PURITY

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SUMMARY OF THE LAW

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.

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CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.

SILENCE

God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

ABSOLUTION

God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

GLORIA

COLLECT

Holy God,
Creator of the world and fount of all life,
you never abandon the creatures formed by your wisdom:
remain with us always, we pray,
working for our good,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD

FIRST READING
Exodus 14.19–31,
read by David Kerr

¹⁹ The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. ²⁰ It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. ^✝ ²² The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. ²⁴ At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. ²⁵ He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.’ ²⁶ Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.’ ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the LORD tossed the Egyptians into the sea. ²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. ²⁹ But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. ³⁰ Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

³¹ Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

SECOND READING
Romans 14.1–12,
read by Kay Solaja

¹ Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. ² Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³ Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. ⁵ Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶ Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. ⁷ We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.

⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰ Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. ¹¹ For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

GRADUAL HYMN

GOSPEL
Matthew 18.21–35,
read by Dr Grant Fergusson

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew, Chapter 18, beginning at verse 21.

Glory to Christ our Saviour

²¹ Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’

²² Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. ²³ For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴ When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; ²⁵ and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” ²⁹ Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” ³⁰ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³² Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

³³ Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” ³⁴ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵ So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.

SERMON

In this morning’s Gospel reading Peter asks of Jesus: “…how often should I forgive?” [Matt 18 v 21] To this question Jesus, in effect, responds that there’s no limit to number of times that we should forgive. We should continually forgive the wrongs that others do to us. This is then followed up by the parable of the unforgiving servant with the central affirmation of the story, as recounted by Matthew in his typically lurid style with its debtors, prisons and torture, that we cannot expect forgiveness of our wrongdoing if we ourselves are unable to forgive the wrongs that others do to us. All that, of course, makes sense, sounds reasonable and is reinforced by the Lord’s Prayer where we pray that we may be forgiven in the measure that we forgive others.

That we must forgive others the wrongs that they do us is easy to say, but difficult – and frankly sometimes feels impossible – to put into practice. We find it difficult to forgive others the wrongs they do us; we find it difficult to accept forgiveness for the wrongs that we have done; and sometimes it actually feels wrong to forgive at all! Sometimes, to forgive feels like condoning, letting off or forgetting wrongdoing. This Sunday falls just two days after the 25^th anniversary of that horrific event of 11^th September 2001 that has become known as 9/11. Can it be right to require that those who bear the name of Christ, but who still to this day suffer the agonies and live with the consequences of that day, should forgive the perpetrators of that horrific terrorist act? How can those whose families, homes and livelihoods are today being destroyed by the violent acts of others be expected to forgive those who inflict violence upon them? It’s very easy to point the finger, to judge, to say: ‘You say you’re a Christian, so you should be able to forgive. You won’t find peace or healing until you do.’ And if we’re the one at whom that finger is pointed then we’re made to feel impossibly guilty. Surely, then we need to hear that word of Paul to us [Romans 14 v 4] “Who are you to pass judgment on … another.”

In every act of worship we make our confession and seek the forgiveness of God for those ways in which we fail God and so let ourselves down. And that’s the only place that we can start. We begin, not by looking elsewhere and pointing the finger at others, but by looking at ourselves and recognising that we fall short of being the people that God has created us to be; that we stand before God in our need of His forgiveness and the new beginning that flows from that forgiveness. And we trust that God who has given Himself for us in Jesus, His Son, living, dying and rising, will forgive us. And we trust because our experience of God is that He is love; that His love knows no limits; that He accepts us as we are, with all our failings and frailties, that we might be loved into the people that we can be and become.

In the God of love whom we meet in the person of Jesus, we put our trust.

Amen.

THE CREED

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayer Requests – Baildon Methodist Church

PRAYERS

Heavenly Father, we thank you that your ambition for us is like the best parent has for their children – including the mystery of us becoming like Jesus. You welcome us and you know our needs before we ask. Help us Lord by the Holy Spirit to ask according to Your will.