Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

18 Septem­ber 2016
Wel­come to our wor­ship this morn­ing!
At St Luke’s we seek to share God’s uncon­di­tion­al love and accept­ance of all people, regard­less of age, gender, race, mar­it­al or fam­ily status, sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion, dis­ab­il­ity or wealth.

Then Jesus said to the dis­ciples …’ The par­ables Jesus told, and that are recor­ded in the Gos­pels, were spe­cif­ic to his hear­ers, their back­ground and life­style. So it is some­times dif­fi­cult for West­ern, Eng­lish-speak­ing 21st cen­tury read­ers to untangle them. Inter­est­ingly, this par­able here is giv­en dif­fer­ent head­ings by dif­fer­ent trans­lat­ors and com­ment­at­ors: ‘the dis­hon­est stew­ard’, ‘the unjust stew­ard’, ‘the unright­eous stew­ard’, more recently ‘dishonest man­ager’ and finally ‘the shrewd man­ager’. He is the cent­ral char­ac­ter in the story – an anti-hero. The par­able story is fol­lowed by sev­er­al ‘sayings’ com­ment­ing on the story – try­ing to make sense of this char­ac­ter.

Per­haps the mor­al of the par­able, as viewed in our mod­ern com­mer­cial world, is that those ‘of the world’ – oper­at­ing in their envir­on­ment – are farsighted – hence shrewd, prudent, look­ing to sur­viv­al. The ‘children of light’, those con­cerned with ‘spiritual’ mat­ters should be ready in their rela­tion­ships to pro­mote ‘heavenly’ things.

• Pray: ‘Your King­dom come’ – that the Church and its mem­bers, will be far-sighted and enthu­si­ast­ic in seek­ing the King­dom.
• Give thanks for the Epis­copal Church of South Sudan and Sudan, and pray for peace between and with­in both coun­tries.

Text:        Moya Holle, ABM Sydney Com­mit­tee
© Anglic­an Board of Mis­sion, 2016St Mat­thew, Apostle

Introit Hymn:  TIS 168 For the fruits of all cre­ation

The Sentence:  You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.                                        2 Cor­inthi­ans 8.9

 

The Col­lect (we pray togeth­er)

O God,

you are rich in love for your people:
show us the treas­ure that endures and,
when we are temp­ted by greed,
call us back into your ser­vice
and make us worthy to be entrus­ted with the wealth that nev­er fails.
We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spir­it,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

First Read­ing                                                                 Jeremi­ah 8.18–9.1

A read­ing from the Book of Proph­et Jeremi­ah

My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land:
‘Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?’
(‘Why have they pro­voked me to anger with their images,
with their for­eign idols?’) ‘The har­vest is past, the sum­mer is ended,
and we are not saved. ’For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dis­may has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no phys­i­cian there?
Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a foun­tain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!

For the word of the Lord                                             Thanks be to God

Psalm:  79.1–9

¹ O God the hea­then have come | into – your | land:
they have defiled your holy temple *
they have made Je-| rus­alem – a | heap – of | stones.

² They have giv­en the dead bod­ies of your ser­vants
as food to the | birds of – the | air:
and the flesh of your faith­ful ones to the | wild – beasts | of – the | earth.

³ Their blood they have spilt like water on every | side of – Je-| rus­alem:
And there is | none – to | bu‑– ry | them.

⁴ We have become a mock­ery | to – our | neigh­bours:
the scorn and | laugh­ing – stock of | those – a-| bout us.

⁵ How long O Lord shall your anger be | so – ex-| treme:
will your jeal­ous | fu‑– ry | burn – like | fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that | do – not | know you:
on the king­doms that have not | called – u-| pon – your | name.

⁷ For they have de-| voured – — | Jac­ob:
and made his | dwell­ing place – a | de‑– so-| lation.

⁸ Do not remem­ber against us the | sin of – former | times:
but let your com­pas­sion hasten to meet us *
for | we – are | brought – very | low.
^†9 Help us O God our saviour * for the | hon­our – of your | name:
O deliv­er us and expi­ate our | sins – for | your – name’s | sake.
Glo-| ry to | God: Fath­er | Son and | Holy | Spir­it;
As in the be-| gin­ning so | now; and for-| ever. | A-| men

Second Read­ing                                                               1 Timothy 2.1–7

A read­ing from Paul’s First Let­ter to Timothy

First of all, then, I urge that sup­plic­a­tions, pray­ers, inter­ces­sions, and thanks­giv­ings should be made for every­one, for kings and all who are in high pos­i­tions, so that we may lead a quiet and peace­able life in all god­li­ness and dig­nity.
This is right and is accept­able in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires every­one to be saved and to come to the know­ledge of the truth.

For there is one God;
there is also one medi­at­or between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, him­self human, who gave him­self a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time.
For this I was appoin­ted a her­ald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teach­er of the Gen­tiles in faith and truth.

For the word of the Lord                                             Thanks be to God

Gos­pel Pro­ces­sion —

Gos­pel acclam­a­tion:

Alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia!
Happy the | poor in | spir­it;
the | king­dom of | heav­en is | theirs!
Alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia, alle­lu­ia!

 

The Gos­pel                                                                  Luke16.1–13
The Gos­pel of our Lord Jesus Christ accord­ing to Luke

X Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Then Jesus said to the dis­ciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a man­ager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squan­der­ing his prop­erty. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your man­age­ment, because you can­not be my man­ager any longer.” Then the man­ager said to him­self, “What will I do, now that my mas­ter is tak­ing the pos­i­tion away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dis­missed as man­ager, people may wel­come me into their homes.” So, sum­mon­ing his master’s debt­ors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hun­dred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked anoth­er, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hun­dred con­tain­ers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his mas­ter com­men­ded the dis­hon­est man­ager because he had acted shrewdly; for the chil­dren of this age are more shrewd in deal­ing with their own gen­er­a­tion than are the chil­dren of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dis­hon­est wealth so that when it is gone, they may wel­come you into the etern­al homes. ‘Whoever is faith­ful in a very little is faith­ful also in much; and who­ever is dis­hon­est in a very little is dis­hon­est also in much. If then you have not been faith­ful with the dis­hon­est wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faith­ful with what belongs to anoth­er, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two mas­ters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the oth­er, or be devoted to the one and des­pise the oth­er. You can­not serve God and wealth.’

For the Gos­pel of the Lord                  Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Ser­mon

Hymn after the Ser­mon- TIS 618 What does the Lord require

Offer­tory Hymn: TIS 517 – Hal­le­lu­jah sing to Jesus

Hymn dur­ing Com­mu­nion

  

Pray­er for our Par­ish

God of Love,
God of Mis­sion,
You alone bring growth to your Church.
Send to us your Holy Spir­it — to give-
Vis­ion for our plan­ning,
Wis­dom in our actions,
And power to our wit­ness.
Help our church to grow in num­bers,
In spir­itu­al com­mit­ment to you
And in ser­vice to our loc­al com­munity.

Final Hymn: TIS –153 God is love, let heav­en adore him

The Notices

Par­ish Coun­cil meets today after morn­ing tea.

Tues­day night Bible Study is cur­rently in recess – watch this space.

Tues­day 20 Thursday 22 Septem­ber at 7.30 p.m.: This year’s New Col­lege lec­tures will be giv­en by Dr.Simon Gath­er­cole, a Read­er in New Test­a­ment from the Uni­ver­sity of Cam­bridge. His top­ic will be the “apocryphal” Gos­pels and their rela­tion­ship to the four canon­ic­al Gos­pels. In place of our Bible Study, this should be edi­fy­ing. New Col­lege is on Anzac Parade close to the inter­sec­tion of Bark­er St, Kens­ing­ton; some park­ing is avail­able in the sur­round­ing streets. Admis­sion is free and you can register online at

Sat­urday 24 Septem­ber – The War­dens “Swingin‘ Nightclub” & Din­ner. Last sale of tick­ets today - $35 or $25 conc. Chil­dren free. If you pay through a dir­ect cred­it – please use a ref­er­ence of 24/9 din­ner. “Please see Ruth dur­ing morn­ing tea to secure your place. You may like to book a table with friends. Help is needed to set up and dec­or­ate the hall from 9.30 a.m. Sat morn­ing. Thank you every­one!

Sunday 2 Octo­ber – St Fran­cis’ Day – Bless­ing of the pets.

Sunday 9 Octo­ber – Imme­di­ately fol­low­ing our Euchar­ist we will have a brief ser­vice to inter the ashes of Mary Sotiri­adis in our Memori­al Garden. Fam­ily & friends of Mary will be join­ing for this occa­sion. Please join in too.

Sunday 16 Octo­ber – Back to St Luke’s Day – Guest preach­er will be Pro­fess­or Diane Speed, Dean and CEO of Sydney Col­lege of Divin­ity. We have sent let­ters of invit­a­tion to former parish­ion­ers and oth­ers con­nec­ted with St Luke’s or St Augustine’s. If you know of any­one who would like to come, please let Ruth or Jen­nie know so that we can send them an invit­a­tion. We will have a shared lunch on this occa­sion, so we will be ask­ing you all to con­trib­ute.

Sunday 23 Octo­ber at 4.00 p.m. – Even­song with the Brabyn Sing­ers.

Sunday 6 Novem­ber – Con­firm­a­tion Ser­vice – Bish­op Michael Stead will be here for the con­firm­a­tion ser­vice. If you or any­one you know wishes to be con­firmed, please see Fr Philip.

Sat­urday 26 Novem­ber – Christ­mas Mar­ket. See Jen­nifer Bestel for fur­ther inform­a­tion and offers of help would be appre­ci­ated.

Book­stall News – Nadia’s book Flight has won the Pic­ture Book Award in the Children’s Book Awards for this year. We have cop­ies in stock.

ABM Cooks are tak­ing orders for: Lem­on but­ter; Apple Chut­ney; Tomato Rel­ish; Fruit Cake; Florentine Bis­cuits (with or without nuts); Cheese Oat­meal bis­cuits; Zuc­chini Pickles. Place your orders with Moya.

Thank you to Nadia Wheat­ley for our won­der­ful Recon­cili­ation Ser­vice last week when Dr Elsie Heiss, was our speak­er. Elsie told her story of grow­ing up as an indi­gen­ous child; her father’s brave stance and her abil­ity to rise from the ashes of dis­crim­in­a­tion and exclu­sion was inspir­a­tion­al.

The photo was taken at our Recon­cili­ation Ser­vice last week.

 

Giv­ing to St Luke’s

 

Envel­opes in which to place your weekly offer­ing are avail­able at the Wel­come Table at the entrance to the church and also at the Inform­a­tion Table near the Book­stall. If you would like to use this meth­od of giv­ing, please take a box. Altern­at­ively …

If you want to ensure reg­u­lar giv­ing to St Luke’s, but find you nev­er have the right amount in cash, or are some­times unable to attend on Sundays, then St Luke’s Dir­ect Trans­fer may work for you. Please put your name or the word “Offering” as a ref­er­ence.

St Luke’s Enmore Bank Account Details

Account Name:          St Luke’s Anglic­an Church Work­ing Account

BSB: 062–165              Account Num­ber: 10023547

Bible Read­ings for the Week 19^th to 25^th Septem­ber 2016

Next Sunday: Nine­teenth Sunday after Pente­cost

Jeremi­ah 32.1–3a, 6–15
Psalm: 91.1–6, 14–16
1 Timothy 6.6–19
Gos­pel Read­ing: Luke 16.19–31

Par­ish Inform­a­tion                                ABN.78 161 584 893.

SUNDAY WORSHIP:

Sung Euchar­ist and Chil­dren’s Min­istry at 9.30 am fol­lowed by hos­pit­al­ity in the hall. Thai Com­munity meets in the Chapel after morn­ing tea. Enquir­ies to Aman­da Mason 0407 101 382.

WEEKDAY SERVICES:

Wed­nes­day 9.30 a.m. — Morn­ing Pray­er; 10.00 a.m. Euchar­ist (fol­lowed by morn­ing tea)
Fri­day 8.30 a.m. – Morn­ing Pray­er

CONFESSIONS (Sac­ra­ment of Recon­cili­ation) HOME COMMUNIONS, BAPTISMS, & MARRIAGES by arrange­ment.

Rect­or — Fr Philip Brad­ford — 0431 655 220 (Mob
Office Ph 9557 4219 PO Box 64. Enmore NSW 2042
Par­ish email:  rector@stlukesenmore.org.au
Fr Philip:  bradford.pr@gmail.com

Pas­tor­al Care
Lay-Min­is­ters — Part Time – Lea MacNeil & Aman­da Mason.