5th Sunday Year B
5th Sunday of the Year – B – Servants of the Servants of God
Hi Everyone. It feels like an age since we last spoke or exchanged any form of greeting, so again I say – Hi and Happy New Year to anyone I have not spoken to so far.
Who, here, is free from worry? Who, here, has a life that is free from all worry and anxiety; free from all stress and pressure; free from every weight and burden of life’s daily living? Anyone? No – me neither.
We are all weighed down by some sort or some aspect of daily living. This may involve our love-lives, our relationships or our families and how we are getting on with brothers and sisters, mums and dads. It may cover births, deaths, marriages or elopements or any one of a hundred different things that involve family and friends.
Equally it could involve our work-lives: promotions and demotions; job-placements; working from home or working from work: rates of pay and bonusses; annual leave and this list goes on and on.
There are a million and one things that can fill our hearts and minds and spirits with worry, concern, anxiety, stress and distress and yet Paul tells us today that he wants to see us all free from worry! What sort of cuckoo land is he living in where he cannot see or appreciate that living is not easy and care-free. None of us live in Nirvana or Disney-land where everything is free and easy! Nobody can say that their lives are free from worry! Or can they?
Pual tells us that everything needs to be as it should be and that to help put everything – yes everything – into its proper focus and perspective, we need to give our undivided attention to the Lord. We need to concentrate all of our efforts on and toward the Lord and what he is asking us to do. For us to be trouble-free and worry-free, we have to ditch those things that are not our priority. We have to lose all things that are extraneous: that are by definition, extra to what we need.
We have to look toward our lives and the living of those lives and see how and where and when and whether they are impacting on others in the way that our Lord demanded of us. We have to become slaves to everyone to help them to see the possibility of the beauty, the meaning and the impact of Christ in their lives. We have to live our own lives in such a way that we ripple out and encompass others in the love that we know: the love that God has for each one of us.
We have to become slaves to everyone that we meet in such a way that we serve them with our love. We serve them with our example. We serve them with our joy. We serve them with our knowledge of Christ and his love for all and his determination to reach out and to touch the lives of anyone and everyone he met.
And this is a reminder to me that we are all here to help and support each other whenever and wherever we can. We are all called to be servants to and for each other, providing support, direction and assistance in whatever way that we can. We are all servants of God, here to do His will, with and through our daily activities, connections and contacts with each other, showing our love of Him and His love for us, in everything that we do.
We are all here to preach the message of the Lord – that God is great; that He is merciful and that He is all-loving and all-merciful. Some of us do this literally through our words at the pulpit or our written offerings but most of us do this preaching by our lived examples; by the examples we set in our everyday lives and actions.
There are so many parishioners within St John’s and St Luke’s, too many to mention by name, who are walking, talking, living examples of servants of the servants of God. People who go out of their way to drop in on the lonely, the isolated, the sick or the poorly – and have a chat through the doorway or on the phone.
We have many parishioners who are involved in the Food Bank and its continuing drive to support those that cannot feed themselves and their families: a tin of beans here or a packet of cereal there – these all help and are all ways in which we, you, are providing this essential support, this real-life, real practical exemplar of the preaching of the Good News. This lived-life example of being the servants to the servants of God.
My wife Celia told me that, during the Covid-years, her work had started this process of calling all of the clients they held on their books, who they had not heard from in a while, not to offer them current banking services, but simply to ask how they were doing and to let them know that they were being thought of. I know that you will probably be as cynical as me and think that this was just a bank taking care of business, but it hit me as much more than this. And so did a couple of the older people who had been contacted who later sent in boxes of chocolates and messages to say, “Thank you” and that this call was the first person they had spoken to in almost a year outside of their homes. The first person they had spoken to in almost a year outside of their homes. Wow! The call lifted them up. It raised their spirits. It made them feel wanted and yes – loved.
It is our role in life to do as St Paul says in today’s reading, to make ourselves, “…slaves to everyone so as to win as many as I could”… for God. To make ourselves, “…all things to all men in order to save some at any cost” and we must do this, “…for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessing.”
We must simply look to see how, where, when we can look to offer support by way of thought, action, prayer, chat to others every day and in every way. It is the smallest thing that can bring the biggest smile; a knock on a door, socially distanced; a short phone-call; a weekly drop of shopping, even something as simple as dropping off a copy of the parish newsletter, lets people know that they are thought of, that they are missed and that they are in our prayers.
A very simple way is the way that we come together here at St John’s each weekend. It is in how we pray together. It is in how we raise our voices in song and acclaim in jubilation as we did at the end of last Sunday’s mass with all of the primary school children, “Our God is a great big God and he holds us in his hand.”
It is in the release of this joy, the exclamation of this faith and belief, shared with every brother and sister here in pour parish community, that we know what our priorities are. We know that Jesus is here for everyone. That his message is for all. That his direction is to take us away from our everyday worries and concerns and to put all of our focus on him And on our heavenly father.
And that if we do this – if we focus all of our attention on God our heavenly Father, then all of our earthly worries will fall into their true and proper place and priority. They will become daily issues and concerns that we deal with without worry and without anxiety. Because we will take each and every one of them and offer them to God for his help, his attention and his support.
Our roles in life are to live as examples of faith and examples of God’s love, alive and active in each one of us and shown by and through our serving of others. Our focus has to be on how we can serve others and enrich their lives through our sharing of God’s love and wonder. Our aim should be to gather together and to improve and enrich every neighbour we meet here in church. And we do that by praying together; by singing together; by being here together and then by reaching out when and where we can to each other outside of this building and this gathering from the moment we leave until we next gather together.
We need to make ourselves all things to all peoples in order to save some at any cost.
God has chosen me to bring Good News to bring Good News to the poor. Help us all to say Yes to his call. Amen
Bidding Prayers
1. That we each seek to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ in whatever way that we can and whenever we can. Lord in your mercy
2. That we work actively to identify those worse off than we are and act to improve their lives how and when we can. Lord in your mercy
3. That those in government and power care for the people they govern, especially those on the edges of society. Lord in your mercy
4. That all those children preparing for their First Confessions and Holy Communion are guided and supported by their families and friends. Lord in your mercy
5. That all who are sick in our parish in mind, body or spirit receive the help they need as and when they need it. Lord in your mercy
6. That those who have died recently find eternal rest with their Father in heaven we remember especially Phil Fletcher whose funeral was last week and Eileen Watkins and Honor Evans whose funeral is this coming week. Honor was a great example of active love and care within our parish for many years. Lord in your mercy
7. That Mary our mother and the mother of the church join her prayers with ours as we now say together, Hail Mary . . .