SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

OPENING 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.

CONFESSION

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.

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 by Billy Dewar Riddick

COLLECT

Almighty and merciful God:

in your goodness keep from us all that is harmful;

that, being ready both in body and soul,

we may freely accomplish your will;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, world without end. Amen

PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD

FIRST READING
Jeremiah 31:27-34 read by Andrew Ratnam

Individual Retribution

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say:

“The parents have eaten sour grapes,
    and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of the one who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

SECOND READING
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 read by Annette Beagrie

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

GRADUAL HYMN

GOSPEL READING
Luke 18:1-8 read by Rev James Clark Maxwell

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Luke chapter 18 beginning at verse 1

Glory to Christ our Saviour

The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious gospel.

Praise to Christ our Lord

REFLECTION

“Never give up, never give up, never give”, who uttered these words as his sole address at a school assembly? It was Winston Churchill. He was wanting to instill in the pupils the importance of persistence. In what someone has coined our snowflake culture we need to grasp afresh the significance and importance of persistence. Those who grasp this concept achieve much. Consider this, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lack of ideas. Walt was bankrupt several times but he never gave up. He persisted and he built Disneyland and everything else is history. Beethoven’s teacher called him hopeless as a composer but he persisted and what works we have from him today. Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time did not make his high school basketball team one year, but he persisted and shone.

In our gospel reading today we met a lady, whose name we do not know, but we know she never gave up, she persisted. We are told she was a widow. Widow in Hebrew means a person with no voice, and in the culture of Jesus’ time it suggested helplessness, poverty, vulnerability, loneliness and isolation. The other character in the parable is a judge, he is not named either but the title judge suggests authority, power, representative of the law and dispenser of justice. It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast between two people than that between the judge and the widow

You would expect, then, that in any conflict between the two the widow would not stand a chance. We would expect her to make her plea timidly in a trembling voice, and then at the first roar of the judge’s resounding “No” to slip unobtrusively away into the shadows. But not this widow!

She keeps coming back to the judge’s court. It is unlikely that she brings with her an assortment of high-priced lawyers. It is doubtful that she comes into court with an armful of law books or stacks of briefs and precedents. I cannot imagine her raising her voice or pounding the table. Nor can I see her with downcast eyes nor hear her whimpering her request through piteous tears. The only line she is given in the story is a straightforward, legitimate request: “Grant me justice against my opponent.” We are not told who her opponent is nor what injustice she has suffered. But she seems to have no advocate, and her status as a widow makes her easy prey for a variety of unscrupulous characters. Her case is probably like many the judge hears every day. It may seem unimportant to the judge, but it is of crucial concern to her. Between her and justice is the judge sitting on his high bench in his sombre robes. From him she has a right to expect vindication for her situation, but sadly it is not forthcoming not from this judge!

He is characterized as one who “neither feared God nor had respect for people.” He himself acknowledges this assessment of his character. Since he does not fear God, the judge feels no compulsion to make proper moral judgments. He has no sense of accountability to an authority higher than his own. He is a law unto himself; therefore, he can make rulings which are arbitrary, judgments based on his own whims. More than likely, he would have been open to bribery. If the widow had money, he might have looked at her case but she has none. Normally men would go to court but the fact that this widow is going on her own suggests that she has no male support. The judge simply dismisses her. Since the judge has no respect for people, you can hardly expect compassion from him. When he sees the widow standing before him and listens to her request, he does not see a person in need of justice. He regards her only as an annoyance, only another petty nuisance, not worthy of his time. He can easily dismiss her with no pangs of conscience at all.

What weapons does she have against such an adversary? Surely her arsenal is empty and she stands helpless before the judge. But not this widow! Her weapons are those for which the judge has little respect or understanding of because he does not possess them himself. Among her weapons are patience, persistence, integrity, a strong sense of justice, and confidence in the rightness of her cause. She has the faith to believe that at the end of the day right will win over wrong, justice will triumph over injustice, good will conquer evil.

Day after day she comes to the judge’s court with her request: “Grant me justice.” Day after day he ignores her. Time and again he will not consider her case. The judge is sure that eventually she will give up. But not this widow. Did she become discouraged? I am sure she did. Did she ever wonder whether she had a ghost of a chance to break through this judge’s hard and callous shell? Perhaps. Was she ever on the verge of becoming bitter because of the treatment she was receiving from this powerful man? If so, one could hardly blame her. Did she ever consider giving up? Not this widow! How long she keeps coming to the judge we are not told. But one day he looks up from his bench, and there standing before him once again is the widow. Can’t you see him putting his head down on his desk, and wailing in a plaintive voice, “Oh, no, not again, not again”?

The judge does not undergo a sudden change of character. He does not experience a dramatic conversion. He admits that still he does not fear God nor respect people. But at long last he grants the woman justice. His motives have nothing to do with morality or compassion or concern for the oppressed. His motives are self-centred and cynical. He has discovered that this widow, for all her seeming helplessness, is a formidable woman. Somehow, he has to get rid of her. She is a pain in the neck to him. His reason for granting her justice is: “This widow keeps bothering me, so I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

More than nagging may be at work here. Scholars say that “wear me out” is literally translated “give me a black eye”. Giving a black eye is an image for tarnishing a reputation. A judge is supposed to give justice and he does not want to be known for not giving justice. This woman’s persistence will show him up as an unjust judge. He does not want this. He wants the pretense of justice on the outside even although he is not committed to justice in the inside. He wants to be known as just. He is hypocritical.

He is self-centered. He is only concerned about his own protection, his own peace of mind, his own comfort and his own reputation -that’s why he finally grants the widow’s request.

Luke gives this parable an introduction which suggests why and to whom it was first addressed. “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Jesus is encouraging his disciples despite all adversities to persist. His disciples

have been taught to pray and they do pray but they are in danger of “losing heart.” There must have been times when Jesus’ contemporary followers were in danger of losing heart because of rejections, lack of understanding on their own part, and the sheer weary routineness of the road. This story about a helpless widow who by patience and persistence prevails over a ruthless judge should give them courage for the long haul. It should bolster their resolve to continue in patient and persistent prayer. This parable not only encouraged them to be patient, but it gave them a basis for their hope. Even in the most difficult of circumstances the widow’s request was granted, and so the disciples can take heart for their requests would be answered too.

The whole point of this parable is to inspire his disciples to keep praying, to keep trusting and to not lose hope. It was John Wesley that said” God does nothing except in response to prayer.”

The parable highlights the contrast between this judge and God. Unlike this callous, indifferent judge, God cares for his people, he wants the best for them, and so you do not need to ram his door until he responds. God hears our request and our persistence underlines to God the significance and importance of our prayer. As Jesus himself said: “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” God does not have to be cajoled, pestered, hounded or worn down before he will hear the cries of his people. If a ruthless judge will finally and grudgingly respond to patience and persistence, how much more will God? How much more will God respond to our needs- a God who is just, loving and caring? So, you can count on God to hear us when we pray. You can count on God to be with you when you hurt. You can count on God to be with you wherever you go. So, keep praying for your relative to come to faith, keep praying for a door to open for you to fulfil your dreams and keep praying for broken relationships. So do not lose heart, keep trusting, keep praying and on Jesus’ return may he find faith in you and in me. 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.

PRAYERS

Lord, you call your church to be purified for your service.

Set our wills on your kingdom alone.

Help us to be people of prayer,

coming to your throne

in times of joy and sorrow,

deeply concerned for the care of others.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, you call the nations

to be at peace with one another.

Be with those countries

like Ukraine and Russia, Palestine and Israel

that are in a state of war and turmoil.

We pray for wisdom and negotiations in that country,

remembering those that are most vulnerable there.

Unite the nations in their pursuit of the good for all

so that none prosper at the expense of the other.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, you call us to care for your creation,

help us to better stewards

of all that you entrust to us.

We pray about climate change

and environmental issues,

asking that you will give us

the will- power and determination

to make a positive difference and impact.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, you call us to rejoice with those that rejoice

and to weep with those that weep.

We lift to you those whose lives are in disarray

as a result of natural disaster or climate change.

Draw the right people and resources to their aid,

that restoration and new beginnings might occur.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, you call us to care

for those who are sick,

physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually.

Anoint them with your Holy Spirit,

bring your healing and balm,

and meet each one at their point of need.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, your call brings us home.

Be with all who mourn at this time.

Be with those whose lives are ebbing away

and are ready to come to you.

Surround all with your love and peace.

We call your name O Lord

Incline your ear to our prayer.

Lord, you call us to come to you

and spend time in your holy presence.

Thank you for the gift of prayer

and for the privilege of drawing close to you.

Teach us how to pray and

how to discern your voice in our world today.

Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,

our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those

who sin against us.

Do not bring us

to the time of trial+

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power

and the glory are yours,

now and forever. Amen.

HYMN

BLESSING

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of His son Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen