The service of holy communion for the 8th Sunday after Trinity was celebrated by the priest-in-charge, the Rev Andrew Stevenson.

In his sermon Andrew said that the Bible is quite definite, we will be measured with the same yardstick that we ourselves use to judge. Today’s alternate Old Testament lesson from the book of Amos makes very clear the consequences for those who fail to judge fairly and correctly in accordance with the values and standards of God.

In our modern day society we seem to measure “performance” almost for the sake of it, and the conclusions we reach are not always correct, and that can also be true of our faith. Today’s gospel reading, the story of Martha and Mary, shows how it is easy to get swept along with doing, and failing to focus on the heart of what it is we believe and stand for. We can debate the relative merits of scripture and tradition; but if we fail to measure what we do and how we order ourselves by the standards that God has set us – love - then we are falling into the same trap as the Israelites who wanted to get on with making money instead of attending to the needs of those around them; or Martha who was more concerned with the processes of doing rather than focussing on the spiritual heart of her faith. All that said, there is also immense danger in allowing ourselves to sit in splendid isolation contemplating our piety and holiness whilst injustice is taking place outside our very doors.

All of which is why Paul in his letter to the Colossians tells us that if we want to know what God looks like then all we have to do is look at Jesus. It is Christ who is the image of the invisible God, Christ who is involved in the establishment of the created order, who is before all things and holds all things together. Jesus is the glue which binds the whole of the created order together in such a way that it is easy to miss it. All because we too frequently lose sight of where we should be looking, and in doing so we can become, as Paul puts it, alienated from God.

But here is the good bit - God in Christ has reconciled us to Himself so that we are holy and blemish free, forgiven and free. What we choose to do with this freedom is of course up to us. But I would suggest that the very best we can do is to live life as it was designed to be lived, living by God’s standards, showing His love and behaving in a way that shows that we believe what we say and doing our level best to model our society on those values.

The readings from Genesis chapter 18 v 1-10a and Colossians chapter 1 v 15-28 were read by Jane and Roger Parrott and intercessions were composed and read by Angela Brown. The gospel reading was from Luke chapter 10 v 38-42. The music was provided by Joan Treloar on organ and keyboard, and the singing was led by Mary Stevenson, James Stevenson and Tom Treloar.